Group of GM execs to get $7.5M in company shares

6/7/2010

DETROIT — Seven senior executives at General Motors Co. will get stock valued at roughly $7.5 million as part of their pay packages, the company disclosed in regulatory filings Monday.

The executives, including North American President Mark Reuss, Vice Chairman for Product Development Tom Stephens and President of GM Europe Nick Reilly, must wait at least a year to cash in the shares. Some shares require a three-year wait.

The disclosures, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, do not list salary or other compensation for the executives. The company said salaries will be disclosed in later filings.

Previously GM had only disclosed a $9 million pay-and-stock deal for CEO Ed Whitacre, $6.2 million for Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell and $5 million for Vice Chairman for Corporate Strategy Stephen Girsky.

The U.S. government owns 61 percent of GM because it gave the company roughly $50 billion in aid. GM has repaid $6.7 billion, with the rest converted to stock.

GM officials say a stock sale could come late this year, but no date has been set.

Other executives to receive stock include Vice President of Communications Selim Bingol, Vice president of Human Resources Mary Barra, Vice President and General Counsel Michael P. Millikin and Vice President and Controller Nick Cyprus.

Since GM technically has no stock at present, an outside company hired by the automaker has placed values on the shares at the time they were granted. A stock granted before Dec. 31, 2009 is worth $38.87 per share, according to GM's annual report. Shares granted after that date are worth $53.98.

The Associated Press reached a total of $7.5 million by calculating the value of each executive's shares based on their worth at the time they were granted, then adding them together.

“GM's executives' total compensation is heavily weighted on the performance of the company,” spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem said in a statement.